Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug or it's characters.
Just a fair warning... the next few chapters are gonna get a tad serious.
Chapter 23,
"I'm here, I'm here." Marinette said as she rushed into the park and over to Alya; gift in hand. Alya gently hushed her and turned her back to Marinette so she could focus more attention on her phone call.
"Sorry." Marinette whispered as she put her gift on the table alongside the few others.
"Don't mind her, Marinette. Nino called her with some family drama." Marinette heard. She looked up and she saw Adrien on a ladder hanging streamers up.
"Nino? Is everything ok?" Marinette said and Adrien shrugged.
"I'm not sure. Something about his dad and his brother, but that's pretty much it." Adrien said and Marinette sighed as she looked at Alya.
"Well, I hope it's not too bad. It would suck to have something serious happen on your birthday." Marinette said and Adrien climbed down the ladder and dusted off his hand.
"I guess if anyone would know, we would." Adrien said and Marinette eyed him.
"What does that mean?" Marinette asked and Adrien shrugged.
"Well, think about it. On my birthday Nino got akumatized and turned into the Bubbler. Then on your birthday your grandmother got akumatized and turned into Befana." Adrien said and Marinette rolled her eyes.
"Well, at least if someone gets akumatized, we have Ladybug and Cat Noir to save the day." Marinette said and Adrien smiled.
"Well, they are an unstoppable team." Adrien said and Marinette nodded.
"You could say that again." Marinette commented and Adrien shrugged.
"They're an unstoppable team." Adrien said. Marinette blinked at this response and then she giggled softly.
"That's so stupid." Marinette said and Adrien shrugged.
"If it gets you to laugh, then it can't be that stupid." Adrien said and Marinette rolled her eyes. She looked at him and for a moment she felt awkward, and she bit her lip.
"So, um... how have you been?" Marinette asked and Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.
"Ok, I guess. You know, two arms, two legs, ten fingers and toes." Adrien said and Marinette smirked at the stupid joke.
"Odd, I don't expect that type of humor from you Adrien." Marinette said.
"Who do you expect it from?" Adrien asked.
"Cat- er..." Marinette blushed a little.
"Wauling comedians." She finished.
"Who?" Adrien asked and Marinette straightened her back a little.
"Caterwauling comedians." She said unphased and Adrien smiled at her quick thinking.
"You know, speaking of comedians, um... well, really comedy as opposed to comedians." Adrien hesitated and Marinette stared at him.
"Yeah?" She asked and Adrien put his hands in his pockets.
"Um... well, um... someone recommended to me that we get together and watch a movie or two. N-not as a date, but for us to... um... spend time together." Adrien said, trying to sound confident, but he was too nervous.
"Oh? Well, what movies did you have in mind?" Marinette asked and Adrien's heart jumped.
"I, uh, I mean... it could be anything, you know. I'd hate for you to be stuck watching a movie you don't want to watch, you know. Um, but they recommended two movies that we could, maybe, possibly, watch. Matilda and Secondhand Lions." Adrien hated how nervous he was being. After all was the one who said he should watch the movies with Marinette in the first place. Yet somehow he was scared of her rejection and it felt like his heart was gonna jump out of his chest.
"Are you gonna have time for that?" Marinette asked and Adrien nodded.
"I talked to Nathalie about it already. Told her a little about us arguing and how our friendship has been... bruised... well she says that she'll make it happen. Uh, if you agree to it, that is." Adrien said. For a moment, Marinette was silent; and it was one of the scariest moments of his life.
"That sounds fun. Maybe you could come over to my house tomorrow or after school Monday." Marinette said with a smile. Adrien breathes out, dropping his shoulders as his body finally relaxed.
"Oh, good." Adrien said and Marinette giggled at him.
"Nino? Nino!" Alya said. She lowered her phone and groaned in frustration.
"Alya?" Marinette said and Alya turned to them and sighed.
"I'm sorry, I think I should go over to Nino's." Alya said and Adrien bit his lip.
"Is he ok?" Adrien asked and Alya shrugged.
"He was telling me how upset Chris was, because he couldn't watch M.A.S.H. or play shooter games, or watch scary movies. And then I hear someone say 'you're drafted' and he hung up." Alya said.
"Weird. 'You're drafted'? Are you sure that's what they said?" Marinette asked.
"Maybe I misheard them, but that's what it sounded like. I hate to ditch you guys while there's still so much work to do, and the others haven't arrived yet, but I gotta go over and see that everything is alright." Alya said and Adrien put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry about us. The others will be here soon and if we need help in the meantime we can always ask Nathalie or my bodyguard to help. They didn't want to leave me until all the decorations were set up anyways." Adrien said, and Marinette smiled.
"That's right, we'll be fine. You just go check up on Nino." Marinette said.
"Are you sure you can handle that? No accidents, no disappearing acts, no 'can't say no' favors?" Alya asked and Marinette rolled her eyes.
"Yep, I'm gonna do all three of those; but first be amazed at me standing on my head and spinning myself round and round and round we go." Marinette said half-sarcastically. Alya giggled, completely unaware of the subtle swooning expression Adrien couldn't help but have on his face.
"Thanks guys. I'll be back as soon as I can." Alya said and she gave them a quick hug before running off.
"So, I guess I need to get started. Where do you need me?" Marinette asked. For a moment Adrien was silent because his 'caterwauling comedian' side had way too many humorous/flirtatious responses associated with that question.
"Uh, well we have a box of tree decorations on that table, or we can put out some more tables and put cloths on them, or we can set up the DJ equipment so Nino can plug in his playlist or jump on when he wants to." Adrien suggested.
"You're doing the streamers, so I can do the decorations in the tree while you do that. Then together we can do that other stuff." Marinette said and Adrien smiled widely. For the first time, it sincerely felt like he and Marinette really were an unstoppable team. She looked behind Adrien and her eyes widened.
"B-aah!" Marinette shouted and Adrien quickly turned around. There stood two large men; one in a hockey mask and the other in a bleached human-like mask. They were standing side by side, with their shoulders back and very tended up body language.
"Stand back!" Adrien said as he guarded Marinette, but they didn't move.
"Who are you?" Marinette asked.
"Nah, they won't answer you." Adrien said. Before she could ask 'why not', Adrien's bodyguard grabbed the both of them, dragged them to the limousine and tossed them inside. When they turned and looked out the window, the two intimidating figures still hadn't moved. Regardless, when the bodyguard and Nathalie got in the car, it started to drive away.
"Who were they?" Marinette asked aloud.
"I didn't get a good look at their faces, but we are gonna get you two, to a safe place." Nathalie said.
"It's weird. They looked like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees." Adrien said with contemplation in his voice.
"Wait, who?" Marinette asked and Adrien blinked.
"That's right, you don't like scary movies. Well, Michael Myers is the killer in Halloween, and Jason Voorhees is kinda the killer of Friday the 13th." Adrien said.
"How is he 'kinda' the killer?" Marinette said annoyed.
"Well the answer depends on if you're talking about Friday the 13th as a franchise or the first movie. Because he is the killer of the franchise, but not the first movie, but that so isn't the point." Adrien explained quickly.
"So you're telling me that for some reason there are two horror movie serial killers?" Marinette asked and Adrien nodded.
"It would seem so." Adrien said.
"Well then... why did they just stand there? Why didn't they tried to hurt us, or even more at all?" Marinette asked.
"Well, if I had to guess-"
Adrien was interrupted by 5 knives being jabbed into the roof of the car.
"I would say they weren't activated yet!" Adrien shouted as the knifes ripped apart the ceiling. When the roof was ripped off, there stood a burned man with a fedora, a red and green striped sweater, and a glove of knife fingers. As soon as Nathalie saw him, the color drained from her face.
"Heeeere's Freddy!" He shouted. He reached in, grabbed Nathalie and dangled her in the air.
"Hey baby, you look tired. I think that's because I've been chasing you in my dreams; HA!" Freddy laughed, jumping away with Nathalie.
"No!" Adrien shouted, making an attempt to grab her, but the effort was feeble.
"Helicopters!" Marinette shouted, pointing up at them.
These choppers were old, circa 1950's, and there were a lot of them. It was scary seeing these iron machines in their flight pattern, ready for action, or worse. Though the hole in the car, they saw one of the helicopters drop something; terrifyingly enough it was a bomb. Unable to stop it, Adrien threw himself over Marinette to help protect her.
Thankfully they were not killed, but the bomb did flip the car, spiraling down the street. Adrien did his best to hold onto Marinette, just in case her seatbelt wasn't enough; she held onto him too. Somehow, they stopped, and for a brief moment, they could only hear a high-pitched C note, and the beating of their own hearts. After they had a moment to catch their breaths, they were able to hear more; but they didn't like it. They heard the sound of guns firing in the distance, among other ammo.
"Oh, why is this happening?" Marinette cried and Adrien couldn't tell if one of them were shaking, or they both were.
"Someone's got to be akumatized." Adrien said as Marinette cried into his shoulder.
"But who could want this?" Marinette asked.
"I don't know." Adrien said. They remained there, listening to the frightening things around them, when they heard something unexpected.
"Hi." A friendly voice said. They looked up, through the hole and saw a man in a soldier's uniform, smiling down at them.
"Hi?" Marinette said.
"It's ok, don't worry, I'm a doctor. That gorilla up there is gonna need some medical assistance, so the three of you have just earned a one way ticket to the 4077 mash unit." The man said. After he said this, the driver seat door opened up and other soldiers carefully removed Adrien's bodyguard from his seat down to a gurney.
"Who are you?" Adrien asked.
"Well, I happen to be Benjamin Franklin Pierce; AKA Hawkeye. My Commanding Officer calls me Pierce, my dad calls me Benjamin, my friends call me Hawkeye, and nurses call me tonight. Frankly I don't care what the army calls me, because they sent me here without my permission. Now let's get you out of the car." Hawkeye said. Adrien couldn't help but tighten his hold on Marinette and glared at the strange man.
"Hey, hey, take it easy; I'm not gonna hurt her. All I want to do is look you both over, give you a terrible meal, and send you on your merry little ways so that you can hopefully be happy for the rest of your lives." Hawkeye said.
Adrien listened to the man's gentle tone and sighed when he realized that he believed him. He let go of Marinette and they unbuckle themselves before Hawkeye carefully lifted them out of the car.